The Newer Shell at Villa Maria and Its McDonald's

Picture from June 2019 by author. The McDonald's sign looks significantly worse now.
We are back in business in 2026. There are many things that are yet to be covered, and there are many things that have already been covered. If you look at the picture for the Map, it's substantially emptier than what it looks like today, which for future-proofing purposes is illustrated below.

This picture doesn't show how anemic the Bryan posts were until a year or so ago. Like many of the posts from last year, we're doing another Bryan post. I've talked about fast food restaurants in the area that have since passed on, last year I covered the following former fast food restaurants: Taco Bell, Roy Rogers, Zaxby's, Pizza Hut, Popeyes, Wendy's, and Bush's Chicken, plus an unusual "gas station Wendy's" and the Long John Silver's before it was rebuilt. Today's post is on a McDonald's, a subject that has been previously explored It hasn't closed yet but is on the list to be replaced, which makes sense as the sign is falling apart and despite often playing up the nostalgic angle, is a "mansard roof" McDonald's which the company is trying to eliminate.

The new location is already drawn up to be at the currently-undeveloped wooded northeastern corner of Villa Maria Road and Harvey Mitchell Parkway. It's not the first thing to be drawn up in the corner, in 2017, it was slated to be a 36,000 square feet Lidl store before they aborted their Texas expansion plan a few years later.

The current gas station as-is hasn't changed much in the almost twenty years it was built (all references say 2005, I'm guessing McDonald's had a ground lease that was for 20 years), with Shell gas, Space Liquor, a convenience store, and of course the McDonald's. I've mentioned this gas station on an old page called "Stories of the West Loop" or something along those lines, and in a comment someone said that Space Liquor was delayed for several months due to some issue by the TABC but their "Public Enquiry System" suggests their license was secured in a timely manner with the other stores.

It's not a good picture but it kind of shows the McDonald's facade (and prices before post-COVID price gouging). Picture from June 2019 by author.
I do remember when it opened, though, it felt less of a modern complement to the "other" Shell which at the time was not actually located at the intersection at the time, and felt more like a direct competitor to the Exxon across the street (which felt different enough than the nearby "La Brisa" Exxon). The McDonald's there at Greens Prairie Road and Highway 6 South had a "two-pronged" sign like what I had seen on road trips (if significantly shorter) but the one at 2818 did not, likely owing to sign restrictions (the older Shell and the older Exxon had taller signs). Even the Highway 6 one was shorter than what I had seen on trips.

Gizmo's Cafe & Bar

Doesn't sound like a bad place, but I like eating outside when the weather's nice, which sadly doesn't happen very often. (from InSite Magazine)
I've been unhappy with the post what was Boyett Street Businesses for a while now (see the archived original version¹), so I've decided to focus on 107 Boyett (one building) and checking on the history of that through Battalion archives. While I'm going to re-examine 103-105 Boyett in the near future (as of this writing--the new post will basically be a cleanup and update), it should be noted that 107 Boyett doesn't really exist...it's the "official" name of this building but no references to it exist only as either Boyett Properties or one (1) reference to a campaign office for George Boyett running as local Justice of the Peace. It has four addresses, including one for Patricia.

109 Boyett opened as sandwich shop New York Sub-Way in 1977 (no relation to the more famous Subway sandwich chain). In 1981 it changed hands to Aggieland Subway (again, no relation to Subway, and may have even been closed for a time). In 1985 it closed and became Gizmo's Cafe & Bar in the 1980s. I received a comment a number of years ago about this place: "I worked at Gizmo's in the late 80's as a server and bartender. It was a great little lunch place with good food. At night, it became the place where all of the Northgate bartenders and servers came to drink, as it was (notably at the time) the only place with a full liquor license on the Northgate strip. Fun times." Gizmo's also used the 111 Boyett space.

In 1990 Gizmo's closed and the space reopened as Spanky's in 1992, which operated until 1994. Paddock opened in 2005 as "Paddock Lane" (name change in the late 2010s). It appears it was vacant for all that time. 111 Boyett was Redbone Jeans in 1977 before disappearing by the end of 1978. It appears that New York Sub-Way took over the spot, and that would be permanent.

For 113 Boyett, first reference was Randy's Liquor in 1978 (#2) which became Coaches Liquor by 1981 (also #2, with "BJ's Package Store" between them in 1980). Later on, it became U.S. Marine Corps recruiters offices by the late 1990s and eventually became Pinky's New School Tattoos by the 2000s. It operated from 2005 to 2008 and was turned into The Tipsy Turtle, which opened in 2009. It may have been Marine recruitment offices from when the liquor store left in the mid-1980s to when the recruitment offices left for the mall in the 2000s.

The most interesting part of these stores is that they are, or were, an example of mixed-use construction. Above Paddock and Tipsy Turtle were some studio apartments, located at 214 Patricia. I'm not sure if these still function as apartments or not (and of course, the noise would be unbearable).

The studio apartments as of circa 2013 (picture by author).

1. As of this post's publication date both are the same. It is for future-proofing purposes.

Former JJ's Liquor, Texas Avenue

In the pre-JJ's days, though all but the ball-looking thing at the top of the sign survived to the end.
Originally located at the now-defunct Texas Avenue page and later at this page, this former liquor store (1600 Texas Avenue South) has been near the corner of Harvey Road since the 1970s (original build date unknown, it was listed in the early 1970s phone books but did not exist in 1971 as per aerials), originally as Discount Liquor Store. J.J. Ruffino bought it in 1983 to complement a Bryan store, and it remained as such for decades. In late 2010, Ruffino exited the liquor store and sold the three stores to Spec's. Spec's converted the store on Rock Prairie and Longmire to their brand but kept the two stores as JJ's, eventually converting them to wholesale only. I went into the store only once in 2016, when I applied for a job in the chain, though for unknown reasons it fell through. (I can tell you that the inside of the store was dark and dingy). The location at Redmond and Texas Avenue closed in 2017 when Spec's built a new store at University and Highway 6 at the former Linens-N-Things that incorporated their wholesale operation.
Southbound on Texas Avenue, March 2014, from car.
Southbound on Texas Avenue, March 2014. Another view.

UPDATE 01-20-2025: JJ's Liquor at 1219 N. Texas Avenue did end up closing sometime in the early 2010s and never converted to the Spec's name. Anyway, after the 1600 Texas Avenue South store closed for good, it was reopened by What's the Buzz Specialty Coffee Company for a few years (removing the "JJ's" signs that were along the building's facade for decades), but by 2024 that moved out and became Scoots, which moved from the DSW shopping center.